After creating its dominance in the budget and mid-range smartphone industry in India, Xiaomi is rapidly spreading its reach to other important product segments. The company's latest 55-inch 4K HDR TV is a big step towards achieving the goal of creating a premium Smart TV category for Indian consumers.

Rating:

4.0/5

PROS

Best-in-class software performance (Android TV 8)

Patchwall UI is content rich and easy-to-use

Good picture delivery

Simplest remote controller

CONS

Underwhelming audio performance

No native support for Amazon Prime and Netflix

Table stand quality could be better

Price : Rs. 39,999

Priced at Rs. 39,999, the new Mi LED TV 4X Pro offers a massive 55-inch 4K panel that supports HDR and runs Android 8 TV combined efficiently with company's CDE Patchwall UI. The TV takes on a number of 55-inch Smart TVs from rival companies- Kodak, iFalcon, TCL, etc. selling in offline and online stores. We have reviewed the 49-inch Mi LED TV 4A Pro and today we are going to talk in detail about the new 55-inches 4K HDR enabled Mi Smart TV. Let's begin with the key specifications of the Smart TV.

Xiaomi Mi LED TV 4X PRO Specifications

The Smart TV boasts a 55-inch 4K UHD HDR LED display. The TV unit features 20W speakers for audio delivery. For software, the company has equipped the new 55-inch Smart TV with in-house PatchWall UI merged with Android TV 8 operating system making it a full-fledged Android TV. The TV has a built-in Chromecast, supports voice commands backed by Google Assistant and ships with a Bluetooth enabled smart remote. Xiaomi Mi LED TV 4X PRO is powered by a 64-bit quad-core processor and has 2GB RAM + 8GB internal storage.

Picture Performance- Big 55-inch 4K enabled the 10-bit panel

The star of the show is the new 55-inch 4K Ultra HD screen (3840 x 2160). Xiaomi has used a 10-bit panel which supports a wider 1.07 billion color palette, far more than what an 8-bit panel supports. The 10-bit panels are capable of producing 1024 shades of one individual color. In simple language, the new Mi TV is better at producing richer colors on the screen. Watch any Marvel Superhero movies or play animated flicks and you will see the vibrant colors popping brilliantly on the massive 55-inch display.

4K and HDR content playback

The panel used by Xiaomi Mi LED TV 4X PRO has a standard refresh rate of 60 Hz but comes with HDR support. Now when we say that the 55-inch display supports HDR, it essentially means that the underlying chipset that powers the TV supports HDR playback. Sadly, the Smart TV does not support Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, two major content providers that offer HDR content. In fact, none of the streaming services supported by new 55-inch Mi TV offers 4K and HDR content. Nevertheless, the 1080p video content playback will leave you spellbound.

Crisp content playback

Streaming 1080p 60fps content and 4K files is a delight on this TV. The panel is a bit reflective so make sure you keep the room lighting in check. The screen produces rich colors and shows no noticeable noise even while streaming darker scenes, thanks to the new graphics engine. Brightness levels still seem an issue here. I would recommend checking the Backlight dimming feature in Picture settings. Keeping it off improved the brightness and contrast levels to some extent that improved the picture performance in darker scenes. Blacks looked deep and colors look vibrant while watching movies. I played the Avengers- Infinity War (1080p) and was really impressed to see the crisp details, punchy colors with a lot of information in the first scene which is rather dark and needs a good display to show the brilliant CGI job.

Best-in-class software on a budget smart TV

Xiaomi Mi LED TV 4X PRO runs on Android TV 8 OS and also gets the company's in-house content discovery engine- Patchwall UI updated to the latest version. Plus you get the Bluetooth enabled remote controller in the package. Combined together, the trio creates the best-in-class and easiest-to-use UI on a budget Smart TV. As the TV runs on Android, you get the access to Google Play Store to install compatible apps such as VLC, MXPlayer, Facebook, Plex and a lot more. The basic TV settings offer various settings covering Picture, Audio, connectivity, storage, network, etc. There's one letdown though. As the TV ships with Mi Remote controller, there are no dedicated buttons to tweak commonly used settings for display output and audio delivery. I actually don't mind that because other so-called Smart TVs are really tough to use because of their half-baked UIs.

PatchWall UI: Supermarket of content services

Xiaomi's in-house UI is built around the content-first strategy. It works as an aggregator, fetches video content from different Mi TV supported service providers and presents the data in an easy-to-use layout. You basically get unlimited video content sourced from supported streaming services and your DTH service provider. The content is shown in easy-to-consume card format with their source listed on the top right corner. Within Patchwall UI, you can also seamlessly switch to a particular app, TV settings or input channels, which makes it really easy to navigate throughout the TV UI. Last but not least, the UI also has ‘Universal search' to make it easy to find content in the huge repository. Overall, Xiaomi has created the best UI for a budget Smart TV.

Design and Audio performance

The new 5-inch Mi Smart TV is quite identical to the recently launched 49-inch Mi LED TV 4A Pro. There are no visible changes at front; however, the new TV is slightly thicker to accommodate a new set of speakers, 10W each that produces decent audio. The sound is good for TV shows and content that's usually streamed over DTH services. But it is not entirely room-filling and lacks the punch to create a cinematic sound experience. You would need the support of external speakers to experience the action flicks and music videos in their best form. The company's recently launched Mi Soundbar can be a very good option as the budget Soundbar creates a rich and cinematic sound experience, perfect for movie buffs.

Connectivity features

There's no major compromise in the connectivity department. The new 55-inch Mi Smart TV features 2 USB ports, 3 HDMI ports, an Ethernet port, S/PDIF port for audio, AV input and Bluetooth.

Verdict

Xiaomi has engineered a wonderful budget Smart TV in the form of Mi LED TV 4X Pro. The 40K price tag for a massive 55-inch 4K HDR enabled Smart TV is quite aggressive and will force other TV manufacturers to innovate more and produce better TVs at low price-points. I really want to see native Netflix and Amazon Prime Video support on this TV as the content provided by these two services only justifies the provided 55-inch 4K HDR screen. My list of expectations does not end here. For the next iteration of Mi Smart TV, I would really like the brand to offer even better and louder speakers, better quality table stand at similar price-point.

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